Teacher Identity

Teacher and Learner Identities: Scaling the Walls of Protection (by Martyna Kozlowska and Jaime Demperio)

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This week’s guest bloggers are Martyna Kozlowska and Jaime Demperio. Martyna Kozlowska is an English language instructor at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). She obtained a PhD in linguistics from McGill University, Montreal, Canada in the domain of generative approaches to L2 acquisition. She teaches primarily grammar, syntax, and critical reading, though her recent teaching and research interests center on issues of language and identity. Jaime Demperio is an English language instructor at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). They obtained an MA in linguistics from Syracuse University in New York, and TESOL certification from LeMoyne College, also in New York. They teach reading, writing, interpersonal communication skills, media literacy, and courses concerning the interplay of language and culture. Their research interests concern identity and language learning.

https://www.dukeupress.edu/light-in-the-darksolluz-en-lo-oscuro

“Each irritant is a grain of sand in the oyster of the imagination. Sometimes what accretes around an irritant or wound may produce a pearl of great insight, a theory.” – Gloria Anzaldua

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(Re)learning to Navigate the Two Solitudes (by Dr Philippa Parks)

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Philippa Parks, our guest blogger this week, is an associate professor and teacher educator in ESL at the University of Sherbrooke, Quebec. She is also the Quebec National Representative of the Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers (CASLT). Her research looks at how language teachers form their professional identity during teacher education, particularly how they build self-efficacy and resilience. 

This blog post includes a linked audio file. Just click on the link below if you would like to hear the post read aloud. Scroll down to read the text.

I thought teaching would be easy. It was something I was passionate about and something I had done for most of my life in one form or another, as a babysitter, as a swimming instructor, as a summer camp counselor. So, when I got my first contract as an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher in a French high school in Montreal in the late 1990s, I had no idea how hard it would be.

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